


ohana means family (and family means sleep deprived dads who love their new infant even though its four am and they’re tired)

by driedupwishes



Series: we are family [1]
Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Family, Family Fluff, M/M, New Parents
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-20
Updated: 2015-05-20
Packaged: 2018-03-31 09:58:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,128
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3973807
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/driedupwishes/pseuds/driedupwishes
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Eren would never admit this to his mother, though he suspected she already knew, but having a kid was the most time consuming, frustrating, ridiculously hard thing he had ever attempted to do.</p><p>He specifically would have used the word ‘<i>attempted</i>’ if he ever were to admit this aloud, because he wasn’t actually sure he was succeeding in being much of a parent. Levi was better at being patient with their new fussy family member than he was.</p><p>“How are you so good at this again,” Eren asked, watching his husband cradle their kid close, bouncing him a little with every step.</p>
            </blockquote>





	ohana means family (and family means sleep deprived dads who love their new infant even though its four am and they’re tired)

Eren would never admit this to his mother, though he suspected she already knew, but having a kid was the most time consuming, frustrating, ridiculously _hard_ thing he had ever attempted to do.

He specifically would have used the word ‘ _attempted_ ’ if he ever were to admit this aloud, because he wasn’t actually sure he was _succeeding_ in being much of a parent. Levi was better at being patient with their new fussy family member than he was.

“How are you so good at this again,” Eren asked, watching his husband cradle their kid close, bouncing him a little with every step. The sight had become familiar to him since bringing the little bundle of poop and joy home, since the whole half-dancing to oldies in the living room was kind of the only way they’d found to get the baby to stop crying sometimes. Eren loved their kid, more than he could have ever imagined, more than he could have ever _expected_ to, but Christ if he wasn’t a fussy little thing.

“I have practice,” Levi muttered quietly. The Beach Boys were crooning in the kitchen, turned down low enough Eren could barely make out the words. Levi knew them, because his husband was a giant nerd like that, and Eren watched him mouth the words as he took another slow, bouncing, swaying lap around the coffee table.

“You don’t have practice with infants,” Eren muttered back. He felt as fussy as their kid, if he was going to be honest; this was only the first week home for the little guy and he’d spent night after night wailing in their ears instead of sleeping. Eren glanced at the clock on the mantle, reading the hands with eyes that burned and groaning when he realized it was four in the goddamn morning.

“No,” Levi agreed, humming a little on the end of the word as the song changed. “But I have practice with his dad, don’t I? It’s basically the same thing.”

Eren was tired enough to be offended, endeared, and embarrassed all at once. He sunk lower into the couch, slapping his hands over his burning cheeks and scowling against his wrists at the way Levi laughed.

“Shut up,” Eren muttered, his stomach lurching and his chest clenching when he peeked through his fingers to see Levi staring at him with dark, fond eyes. He was still rocking their kid – Eren’s biological kid and Levi’s legal kid – against his shoulder, one hand oh so carefully held to support the little guy’s neck. Levi was wearing yesterday’s sweatpants and one of Eren’s old shirts, already stained with baby spit, the bags under his eyes already more prominent and his hair clipped up out of his face with one of the sparkly flower hair clips that Isabel had bought him earlier in the week. Levi had requested plain hair clips, since the kid had been a few weeks early and Levi hadn’t gotten around to getting his hair cut like he meant to. Buzzing the sides down had only taken a second, but apparently Eren and Isabel weren’t trusted to not give Levi a lopsided haircut for the rest of his head after the last time, which both found offensive and also probably a smart idea.

Isabel had handed Levi the packet of sparkly girly hairclips two days before with a cackle before she stole their kid and cooed at him incoherently. Eren and Levi had taken the chance to shower together, leaning against each other’s chests, heads on the other’s shoulder as the hot water beat down on them. Eren had wrapped his arms around Levi's waist and Levi had looped his arms around Eren's neck, both of them more than a little shell shocked at how tired they were. They hadn't thought it'd be _easy_ , but they hadn't thought it'd be so hard they'd be making tiny exhausted noises in the back of their throats instead of actual words. The peace of the shower had been cut short when the sound of their son screaming his little lungs out from the living room filtered through the vents, but it had been a nice couple of minutes nonetheless.

Eren was hoping they could steal even more minutes like that once his mother and Levi’s flew in next week. Both women had wanted to come in sooner, but work had delayed Eren’s mother and Levi’s mother had been snowed in until yesterday, at which point Levi just told her to wait for the flight she had arranged back when they thought the kid would obey the schedule of his delivery.They were on their own for the most part, which hadn’t seemed like such a hard thing to do before the kid was born. Now though…

“Hey,” Levi muttered quietly, nudging Eren’s knee. Eren blinked, coming back out of his thoughts to find Levi was standing over him, their son sleeping quietly in his arms. His left hand was supporting their kid's head and in the light from the lamp his wedding ring gleamed, gold and present even this late. Levi always put his on when he rolled out of bed, no matter how early it was. The thought made Eren's chest constrict even as he took in the sight of the miracle before him. Eren kind of wanted to cry.

“Oh my god,” Eren whispered, sitting up and leaning, carefully, against Levi’s stomach. He wrapped his arms around his husband’s hips, feeling the little vibrations of Levi’s laughter as he did so. “I have never loved you so much in my _life_ , Levi, Jesus fucking _Christ_.”

Levi leaned his weight into Eren, humming quietly with the next line of lyrics Eren still couldn’t decipher. He thought this song was by the Monkeys though, not the Beach Boys. But he couldn't quite be sure.

“I love you too,” Levi muttered fondly. Their knees brushed, Levi's stomach moving as he breathed. “Now are you coming to bed or not?”

Eren squeezed Levi’s waist, careful not to jar him so that the baby slept on peacefully. “Following you,” Eren mumbled, slumping back again to let Levi move. His husband did so, each step measured and slow, and Eren watched him go for a second before lurching to his feet. He meant to follow him straight to the bedroom, but instead he made a detour into the kitchen to pause the music. They’d need it later, probably in an hour or so, but for now he could enjoy the peace and quiet of their pre-dawn house.

Levi was lowering their kid into his cot by the side of their bed when Eren came in, which left Eren with the chance to appreciate the sight before him. The love of his life and their new kid, lit by the streetlamp light coming in from the window; Levi’s lips curling into a small heart wrenching smile as he crouched down, hands slipping from their kid like he was reluctant to let go. Eren felt his eyes burn for a reason outside his lack of sleep, his chest constricting with so much emotion he could hardly breathe.

“Hey,” Eren whispered, pushing off the door frame and taking long, soundless strides across the hard wood floor. Levi straightened to meet him, head tipping up to meet Eren’s gaze. He reached out, thumbing the edge of Levi’s hip as he slid a hand around his waist, pulling him forward until they were chest to chest. Levi’s smile grew slightly as Eren ducked down to meet him, lips pulling back to show his teeth as his eyelashes fluttered slightly shut.

“Hey yourself,” Levi muttered back. His breath tickled Eren’s lips and the feeling made him shiver, egging him into ducking down to kiss him softly, feeling the curve of his husband’s smile for himself. Levi raised on his tiptoes a little to kiss him better, but after a few seconds Eren leaned back, hand sliding up Levi’s back and tugging him forward as Eren took a step back.

“C’mon,” Eren muttered, taking another step back toward their bed. “Let’s sleep; the little dude will be fine for a while.”

Levi moaned faintly at the mention of sleep, stumbling forward a step, and with a quiet thump Eren ran into the bed with the back of his knees and dropped down on his ass. Levi all but crawled over him to get on the mattress, grabbing Eren’s arm to drag him along as they flopped together in a boneless heap. Levi pressed against Eren’s chest, tucking his smaller frame under Eren’s arm in lieu of trying to figure out how their blanket worked since it was piled down at their feet and therefore too far away. Eren curled around him with a laugh, more than warm enough despite the winter months, throwing a leg over Levi's and burying his nose in his husband's hair. They were both out within minutes, exhausted beyond any previous definition of the word, and they stayed like that until they were woken again by the ever increasing sound of their son’s cries echoing throughout the room.

Levi, as usual, seemed to register the crying and realize what it was before Eren could. Eren woke more-so from the prodding nudge of his husband’s elbow in his gut than the crying, but it only took him a few offended puzzled seconds before he realized what was going on. He promptly groaned and tried to crawl under their pillows to escape the noise, his reluctance only doubling when he accidentally caught a glance at the clock. 5:34 AM.

Did their kid _hate them_ already?!

“Oh no you fucking don’t,” Levi muttered, rolling into his side with a forceful shove. “It’s _your turn_.”

“I’ll let you be Daddy,” Eren offered weakly, even as he started the long and terrible process of sitting up. Levi opened an eye long enough to give Eren a withering, unimpressed, sleep deprived look before he was shoving at Eren’s hip, muttering about how it was a good thing they’d moved out of the apartment and into a proper house so that they weren’t bothering anyone with the noise.

Eren would have been offended at the way he was hardly on his feet before Levi was hauling the blanket over his head and rolling over, but he was mostly just endeared. Oh well, he thought; it _was_ his turn.

“C’mon little dude,” Eren muttered, bending over to carefully pick up their bundled up son. His face was scrunched up, ugly and red with tears and snot, and Eren felt something inside him ache at the sight.

“I know, I know,” he whispered, fingers curling to support the infant’s neck as he lifted him against his chest. His mother had told him earlier that week that when he was a baby he always liked to be pressed against someone’s chest where their heart was, so that he could hear it beat. Their son seemed to like it too, since his screaming fit went down just a notch. Eren felt stupidly proud about that tiny accomplishment as he left the bedroom and flipped the light on in the living room, bypassing the couch to head for the kitchen instead.

“You’re probably hungry,” Eren muttered, shifting so that he was holding the infant with one arm, body supported in the crook of his elbow and head supported with his hand. He was as quick as he could be about getting some of the milk for the baby out of the fridge and into a microwavable bottle, his heart pounding with fear at the thought of his wriggly little kid slipping from his grip. The second the bottle was heated and the playlist Levi had put together of all the calming, soothing oldies he could think of was on Eren was back to cradling his kid in two arms, watching with an ever growing fondness as the infant ate.

Yeah, he might never admit that raising a kid was harder than he had thought, but he couldn’t say it wasn’t worth it. Levi would wake up in a little while and they’d make breakfast, taking turns with the kid, and someone would probably come visit them to give them a chance to nap for more than twenty minutes at a time. Next week their mothers would be in, an event Levi was beginning to refer to as “the cavalry arriving,” and Eren found he coulnd’t agree with him more. 

But right then, in that moment, with his husband still sleeping and their kid eating peacefully, Eren tipped his head back against one of the kitchen cupboards and hummed along as a Belinda Carlisle song came on, more content with life than he had ever thought possible.

**Author's Note:**

> true story: the only thing that would shut me up in the wee hours of the morning as a baby was my dad rock-bouncing me around the living room while a Belinda Carlisle CD played. he still complains about it sometimes, like I did it on purpose. his favorite curse is "I hope any child you have is exactly like you" and I honestly can't fault him that, tbh. BUT ANYWAY.
> 
> ERERI WITH BABY YAY! saw a picture and then when I offered fic to my sad friend he requested this. and here it is. kid unnamed b/c I couldn't think of an appropriate name at 3am yesterday, lmao.
> 
> I hope you enjoyed it! :)


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